This article aims to offer to the non-specialist reader a concise introduction to the main elements of the state aid acquis, and inform on what lies ahead of Romania in the accession process in relation to state aid control, based on the precedent of the 2004 enlargement. It also discusses the current state of affairs in Romania in the domain of state aid control, with a particular view to the situation of the steel and coal sectors. Section I covers the legal concept of state aid, the substantive rules applicable to state aid – the general ban and exemptions from it, the Commission’s control and monitoring powers, and the regime currently applicable to coal and steel aid. Section II relates the experience of the countries that joined the EU in May 2004 in the negotiation of state aid issued under the Competition Chapter, discusses the notion of “existing aid” (i.e. state aid given in the candidate countries previous to accession but which continues to produce effects after accession) in the context of enlargement, and overviews the agreed transitional arrangements. Section III turns to the legislative and institutional context for the control of state aid in Romania, and to topical issues related to state aid in the context of the negotiations on the Competition Chapter
